Scholarship

Current Academic Position

Lukas Szrot (pronounce last name—rhymes with “throat”) has been teaching in some capacity since 2014. He began his first full-time job at Bemidji State University in 2019 after completing his doctorate at the University of Kansas. Lukas serves the university and community in numerous capacities, and has taught or is teaching courses in Statistics, Theory, Research Methods, Social Movements and Change, Society and Social Issues, Social Class and Inequality, Religion and Politics, Sociology of Education, Work and Careers, Sociology of Gender; and Gender and Women’s Studies. He is currently working on numerous original research articles and future book opportunities. Dr. Szrot was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor, his current rank, in 2024. He has returned refreshed and with new ideas after a year-long sabbatical as of the 2026-2027 semester; and will be engaging with some of these ideas, as well as archived blog entries, on his Facebook page.

In 2025, Lukas was elected President of the Sociologists of Minnesota, a state-level nonprofit professional organization. He has been working with colleagues and with the SoM Board of Directors on bringing the annual conference to Bemidji State University October 2026, and will serve in this position for a total of three years.

Though an avid writer whose scholarly work spans the relationship between society, nature, technology, and the sacred, Lukas has substantial experience mentoring students, both undergraduate and graduate, and works to build courses and materials that are both flexible and accessible. As a first-generation/nontraditional student and working-class academic, his background has prepared him to reach students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds to build the skills, efficacy, and agency to complete their degrees and strive for their goals.

Though first and foremost a sociologist, Lukas is a highly interdisciplinary scholar in terms of interest, having engaged in research and other scholarly activity across multiple fields, including psychology, education, philosophy, gender studies, literary criticism, religious studies, environmental studies, applied statistics, biology, chemistry, and more recently, Indigenous studies.

Lukas has over two dozen scholarly publications in various outlets; and spent sabbatical writing his second book, which critically details the relationship between society, nature, and emerging technologies through the perspective of controversial philosopher and social critic Herbert Marcuse. His first book, Faiths in Green, which detailed the historical relationship between environmental concern and religious group identity in the United States, was published in 2021 and is now available in paperback.

In addition to writing, teaching, and research, Lukas has several years of work experience in the fluid power industry, the music industry, and the food service industry, including multiple leadership/managerial positions. Outside of his work as a scholar, he currently sings Bass II in the Bemidji Chorale, a local choir; engages in strength training at the local gym, drinks craft beer, and has reworked and re-released many of his old musical compositions, both over sabbatical and when off-duty from teaching. He spends a little time every afternoon walking with his dog, Tiny, whom he and his wife adopted in October 2025 after their previous dog, Chewie, passed away in January 2023.

Areas of Interest

Environment, Religion/Culture, Theory, Methodology

Educational Background

2019: Ph.D. (Honors), Sociology, University of Kansas, with additional graduate-level competencies in Environmental Studies and Applied Statistics/Quantitative Methodology

2015: M.A., Sociology, The University of Texas at Arlington

2004: B.A., Philosophy, The University of Texas at Arlington

Academic Positions/Work

2019-Present: Sociologist, Bemidji State University

2015-2019: Lecturer/Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Kansas.

2017: Adjunct Faculty, Washburn University.

2014-2015: Graduate Teaching Assistant, The University of Texas at Arlington.

Selected Recent Publications in Print

Book: Faiths in Green: Religious Change and Environmental Concern in the United States. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books [link]

Book Review: “Sex Lives of the Chaste: A Lesson in Sociological Ambivalence.” Symbolic Interaction [link].

Article: “Independent Music after Metallica v. Napster: Seeking Liberation in the Streaming Simulacrum.” Fast Capitalism 21(1), pp. 70-7 [link].

Book Review: “Research Methodology as Interactive Epistemology.” Symbolic Interaction [link]

Article: “Risk, Return to Industry, and the Future of Democracy.” Fast Capitalism 18(1), pp. 98-114 [link]

Article: “From Stewardship to Creation Spirituality: The Evolving Ecological Ethos of Catholic Doctrine.” Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture 14(2):226-49 [link].

Book Chapter: Paul V. Stock and Lukas Szrot. “Justice.” Handbook of Sustainable and Regenerative Food Systems. Edited by Jessica Duncan, Michael Carolan, and Han Wiskerke. New York: Earthscan by Routledge, pp. 98-112 [link].

Magazine Article: “From the Middle: Sites of Culture, Cooperation, and Trust in Risk Society.” This View of Life [link].

Press

Note: Please feel free to email news items and other press releases to add to the list any time.

May 27, 2021, BSU News: Bemidji State Sociology Professor Publishes New Book on Environmental Concern & Religious Identity [link to story].

December 15, 2020, BSU News: Szrot Analyzes 50 Years of Doctrine to Uncover Shifts in Environmental Consciousness [link to story].

October 1, 2020, Bemidji Pioneer: BSU Scholars to Headline Honors Lecture Series [link to story].

August 27, 2020, BSU News: Sociology Professors Present at American Sociological Association Conference [link to story].

August 24, 2020, BSU News: BSU Professor Co-Authors Chapter on the Justice of Sustainable Food Growing & Harvesting [link to story].

January 18, 2019, Scholars Strategy Network (SSN): How Religious Groups Doing Creation Care Can Help Address Climate Change [link to story].

August 13, 2018, earth.com: Young Religious Americans Show Support for Environmentalism [link to story].

August 11, 2018, phys.org: Environmental Concerns Stronger among Younger Religious Americans [link to story].